the green gal

Lovely Monday

These daffodils are lovely, but I'm not feeling the loveliness so much today. I'm quite a private person, and I try to be a positive person, so I don't often talk on here about the less cheerful stuff in life. But having received news of bad things happening to good people in my life (and it seems happening too often too) I'm struggling a little bit to remain perky. I'm trying to channel energy into making the most of every day and living life to the fullest but sometimes it's hard, isn't it? There's a lot to be thankful for and that's what I'm going to try to focus on.

So, on a more positive note, I saw lots of crocuses blooming this weekend, had lunch with a gorgeous friend, celebrated birthdays with three of my beautiful nieces and nephews, and the wonderful Will of Bright Bazaar has featured one of my vintage illustration postcards in his blog post today. If you haven't come across Bright Bazaar before do check it out, it's a fabulous feast of interiors, accessories, colour and inspiration.

And, whatever you're doing today, and however you're feeling, have a hug from me. xx

Special weekend offer: Free deco tape with £15 order at thegreengables.co.uk

It's been a lovely week, the sun has shone, flowers are beginning to bloom and Spring is in the air. So, to celebrate my good mood I'm giving you a special offer – just for this weekend a free 30 metre roll of decorative heart sticky tape worth £3.50 with every order over £15! Perfect for prettying up packages and envelopes as well as giving a bit of oomph to simply wrapped presents, this decorative tape is super useful and 30 metres goes a long way!

Offer ends 11pm Sunday 26 February (plus there's always free delivery when you spend £30) so scoot on over to the green gables shop now…

Marvellous Milly-Molly-Mandy

Do you know of Milly-Molly-Mandy? Have you read the adventures of the little girl in the striped dress who lives in The Nice White Cottage with the Thatched Roof? As a child I read lots of the Milly-Molly-Mandy stories that Joyce Lankester Brisley wrote and illustrated, and still feel the influence of it today.

Milly-Molly-Mandy lives an idyllic life from a bygone era where the height of enjoyment is fishing in a stream, blackberrying in the woods, camping in tents made from sheets and chairs, and eating picnics of bread and butter with her best friends little-friend-Susan and Billy Blunt. The illustrated map of her English village at the start of the book was enough to hook me as a young reader.

I think that reading books like Milly-Molly-Mandy, The Family From One End Street, Ballet Shoes, pretty much everything Enid Blyton ever wrote and, of course, Anne of Green Gables, gave me my love of vintage, nostalgia and a longing for an idyllic, old-fashioned life living in a thatched cottage with chickens and a big vegetable garden. I do live in a lovely little cottage with a very little veg patch but I fell in love with Milly-Molly-Mandy's house several decades ago and dream of a thatched roof with a gable or two.

Written in the 1920s you could think that the Milly-Molly-Mandy stories bear no relation to life today and perhaps they don't. But if you, like me, find any excuse to hang up the bunting, like tea made in a pot, consider swapping the laptop for the typewriter on occasion, are fond of wearing a pinny and dream of a simpler life, you'll love Milly-Molly-Mandy, whatever your age. The gorgeous illustrations fit the beautifully written stories perfectly. In fact, I'm going to read all 38 stories in my omnibus book right now…

Drum roll please…

Thank you so much to everyone who entered my giveaway, I'm absolutely thrilled at the response! So, the winner is…

available here

…Tracey M Hanley/alienbuffy! Congratulations! Email me at gabrielle@thegreengables.co.uk with your address and your gift wrap set will be on its way to you.

Thanks again everyone! xx

Who's for a spot of guerrilla knitting?

Yarn bombing, graffiti crocheting, guerrilla knitting – whatever you call it – is there a much cooler sight than an ordinary object swathed in woolly goodness? I think not.

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Mmmuuuummm!

Mothering Sunday in the UK is on 18 March. Write it in your diary. Add it to your electronic calendar. Just. Don't. Forget. It!

I wanted to create a new framed print especially for mothers and to celebrate their day, so I enlisted the help of a bunch of mums to give their opinion on a selection of phrases and quotations. They were tied between two options so I just had to make both!

So, there's the short and, of course, 100% true:

find it here

And then there's the sweet (and, judging by reaction so far, tear-inducing):

find it here

Both prints are available in duck egg, sage, olive and moody blue, and as with all orders over £30, p&p is free. My other framed prints are still available, in case you fancy something else, plus you can find decorations and gift wrap at the green gables too.

Whatever you do for your mum this Mother's Day just make sure that hug is an extra squeezy one.

Lovely Monday

source

I fell in love with this wallpaper the moment I spotted it on Holly Becker's (of Decor8) pinterest board. It's called My Neighbours, was designed by Sedat Girgin and is sold by Studio Nommo. I can easily imagine sitting in my favourite armchair and staring at the different windows for hours on end, spotting new details and imagining the buildings and people who would have such windows. Fabulous. 

We don't have any papered walls in our home but having looked around Studio Nommo I'm seriously tempted to suggest it to the hubbie, especially as you can make your own wallpaper…!

PS Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Gift wrap giveaway

Who feels lucky?

I am running a little giveaway for one lucky person to win 20 sheets of recycled paper gift wrap (ten heart, ten star), 20 recycled card gift tags (ten heart, ten star) and 8m of sheer and satin ribbon (4m red, 4m white). That should take care of your present wrapping for a little while!

You can enter in several ways:

:: leave a comment on this post

:: like the green gables page on facebook

:: like, share or leave a comment on the giveaway post at facebook.com/thegreengables

:: follow me @thegreengal on twitter

:: retweet my giveaway tweet on twitter

:: sign up to receive the green gables newsletter on the website

The giveaway is open to anyone, wherever you are, and I will announce the winner after 5pm GMT on Wednesday 22 February. Good luck!

Try, try and try again

Go, on, give whatever it is a go. I dare you.

The gift of palette pingpong

So, if you're wondering what's happened to the regular palette pingpong posts I can tell you that they're having a little holiday! But they will be back. In the meantime I thought I'd give you a round up of all the free gifts Kirsty and I have given you in our palette pingpong posts. Within 41 PPP posts lie 21 different freebies – printables, tutorials, desktop wallpapers – so there's a good chance you may have missed the odd one!

Here is a list of all the PPP posts that hold little gems of pretty palette-inspired downloads, in order, so you can be sure you've made the most of our offerings. Some of them are tied into seasonal events but you can always download the file to use at the appropriate time. As with all our free downloads, please remember they are only for personal use and if you'd like to share them be sure to link back to the original post.

Right, on with the list!

oh, hello card

cheery desktop wallpapers

handmade is heartmade print

bunting postcards

congratulations card

Hallowe'en ghost garland

you're a star card

Christmas tags

master plan sheets

twitter desktop

love you card

you are lovely card

life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful desktop wallpaper

you are the bestest cards

be kind prints

I heart you card

thank you cards

pears desktop wallpapers

mini flag garland tutorial

teardrops & rainbows print

patterned paper & Christmas tags